Why out of the wazoo

Why do we need rain? Are the trees gonna fall again? Why do we need trees? What is lightning?

We've had a rainy few months here in Georgia, which usually brews some pretty nasty thunderstorms. This also brews a barrage of questions from Hummingbird. Questions that I don't always know the answer to. Sometimes I know the answer but just don't have the energy to go into any of them because I know it will lead to another "why" question. I've read that the "why" questions reappear when kids turn 7. Didn't know they actually disappeared, huh?

So, this:

Atlanta Journal and Constitution

Lead to...

this:

On the ride home yesterday, it hit me (thanks Holy Spirit). Whenever hit with a "why" question, I decided to have Hummingbird jump on the computer and research the question. Once she has the information, she has to write down three things that she learned about the topic. Then she has to tell us about the three things at the dinner table.

I'll tell you, Yogli was not too impressed with my idea. And after she hopped on the computer and got frustrated after only 5 seconds, I started to rethink my idea. Her frustration led to whining. Her whining led me to tell her "never mind". But I am working on being more consistent with them. One thing that I've learned as parent, kids need consistency. They just sit back and wait on the opportunity when you don't do what you said you would do. There are many times when I am too tired to reinforce a law I laid down the day before. And at those moments, they love throwing my law up in my face! At that point, I have a choice: keep and reinforce the law or say "never mind", we'll start again tomorrow. Both speak volumes to them. "My mom keeps putting things off", "My mom is not serious" or "Man, my mom is on her A game", I prefer the latter. Procrastination is a comfortable, yet ugly beast. At times, I have to use every fiber of my being to fight it off.

So, we worked through the tears. I tickled her a bit, she likes to be tickled. This got her back in the mood to answering her "why" question. She found out why we need trees. Now, for the presentation, she likes to put on a good show.

At dinnertime, I explained to MonkeyMan what was about to happen, he chuckled. Yogli laughed. After we said grace, she sprung into action.

How long can I keep this up? As long as it is of value, she keeps learning something new. I might even pick up something new. Especially since it's summer break, keeping her mind primed and ready is a good thing.

Wait, what's that I see? Is that the sun?

Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me....and shine some light on all these questions Hummingbird keeps asking.